Closing the Gender Pay Gap needs to be prioritised by main retail Banks
08 January 2025
18.5% Mean Gender Pay Gap across main retail banks is not acceptable and needs to be urgently addressed
The Financial Services Union (FSU) have called on the three main retail banks, AIB, Bank of Ireland and PTSB to take immediate steps to address the gender pay gap (GPG) that exists in the sector. Each of the three main retails banks have issued their year-end gender pay gap details which finds a mean GPG average of 18.5% and a median GPG average of 14.8% across the three banks.
The individual findings are as follows:
| Bank | Mean GPG 2023 | Mean GPG 2014 | Median GPG 2023 | Median GPG 2024 |
| AIB | 18.9% | 17.8% | 13.1% | 12.7% |
| Bank of Ireland | 21% | 21% | 19.5% | 20.1% |
| PTSB | 16.3% | 16.9% | 9.2% | 11.6% |
| Average of all 3 | 18.7% | 18.5% | 13.9% | 14.8% |
Commenting on the results John O’Connell, General Secretary of the FSU, said:
“These results are embarrassing for each of the Banks, and it is obvious that closing the gender pay gap is not a priority issue for any of the banks.
The average in the sector is unacceptably high and needs urgent action. The FSU have consistently called for each bank to commit to working with the FSU to produce an agreed action plan that would set agreed annual reduction targets.
This action plan would include but is not limited to:
- Encouragement of part-time and flexible working arrangements for staff at all levels.
- Audit pay increases and performance ratings every year for fairness and equality.
- Make pay ranges public for workers to see and end pay secrecy.
As an immediate step we would urge any new Government to transpose the EU Pay Transparency Directive as quickly as possible and to create a central data system that would store all GPG results so we can track trends and actions that work in different sectors of the economy.
Without proper oversight companies will fail to implement the measures that are required to close the gender pay gap for good.”
ENDS